23 Apr

Oxford Instruments wins Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2019

Oxford Instruments is proud to announce that its NanoAnalysis division has won the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2019 for the Ultim^® Extreme detector system. The Queen's Awards for Enterprise has four categories; International Trade, Innovation, Sustainable Development and Promoting Opportunity (through social mobility).

The award was granted for innovations made during the development of an x-ray instrument that, when used in an electron microscope, enables very low energy x-rays to be detected in samples. Such a capability has multiple applications, including for example measurement of lithium used in battery research and high-resolution measurements of semiconductors samples.

This is the sixth Queen’s Award won by the NanoAnalysis division and the fourteenth for the Oxford Instruments Group overall.

The unique design of the Ultim Extreme, perfected over many years in development, enables very low energy x-rays to be detected in samples in an electron microscope, an achievement as this was previously considered to be very difficult to achieve.  Users include some of the most prestigious institutions and businesses from around the world, who are able to dramatically improve their productivity and explore ever more sensitively and expanding their capabilities at the nanoscale.

Dr. Ian Wilcock, Managing Director NanoAnalysis, commented “I am delighted for the Oxford Instruments team that conceived and developed our unique Extreme detector that their innovation has been recognised by the Queen’s Award. The system has been a great success and is now used in laboratories throughout the world in key areas of research including new battery technologies and in novel semiconductor applications." 

For further information and electronic copies of the images please contact:

Melanie Le Sage, Head of Marketing Communications at Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis